Brighton University: 02 Design for Interaction: Possible Ideas
Possible ideas?
I have a few possible ideas from my research.
I recently saw an advert on co2 emissions on TV (which you can watch here). The advert features a car’s exhaust in the first scene. Its in the perspective of an industrial tower producing a load of co2 emmisons. The camera zooms out showing the car. The voice over explains how car’s are the second biggest contributor to co2 emissions.
My idea was to create an installation, based on what could happen in the future if we don’t act now. The installation would be placed in a city environment. Capturing a video feed from the street. This video feed would be manipulated into five rectangles for instance. Each rectangle could represent 20 years in advance from the other. A tagline could say “Act on co2 emissions”, lower your carbon footprint. This would engage the street passer’s by with the subject as Adobe did with their brand.
My second idea is virtual identities. How we digitize our lives within modern culture. Relating back to a university trip to Tent London there was an interactive installation based on Gold as obsession.
The installation allows the audience to explore the obsession with super-stardom and the extravagance that accompanies it.
My idea is to develop an installation which allows the user to view themselves as a digital form. The installation would capture their image and digitize it in a metal pin art type effect. Each pin would represent something about them. This would hopefully show the user that their online identity doesn’t replicate their true personality.
Trip to Digit London
On the 19th October our class took a trip to Digit London. Here’s a brief description about them taken from their website’s about section:
Digit is a London-based interactive communications agency. We believe in using technology to make life easier and more enjoyable, not to complicate things further. It’s an approach we call ‘Simple Human Interaction’. Source.
A couple of Digit’s in-house workers showed us a variety of projects. These projects ranged from Interactive installations such as the Sony Ericsson’s Cybershot installation to personal R&D projects.
This installation was designed to promote Sony’s new Cybershot camera phone. It let people interact with the phone differently to show the phone’s new features. This was captured through body motion. Getting the public to do something fun and capturing it in motion engaged the user with the product.
The reason why this was so successful fall’s back to Digit’s approach to their work: ‘Simple human interaction’. This is the concept I want to push forward within my interactive theory.
I can see why that approach has made Digit a successful business. In my opinion, Interactivity need’s simplicity to function properly. Creating something interactive that is extremely complex ruins the whole experience. Interactivity should be fun and easy to engage with.
Idea based on ‘Simple human interaction’
A few months back I remember my girlfriend’s grandad using a laptop for the first time. He had trouble understanding the basics concepts of interactivity within the operating systems UI. The problems were program opening and finding. For most computer users these tasks are very basic to do. But for the generation that grew up with limited technology these tasks are difficult to perform and understand.
My idea was to develop an application style dock for Windows. The user can add items to the dock, open applications, providing easability for the user. Basicly acting as the shortcut navigation to the operating system. Think of it as the equivalent to the Mac OSX dock.
Human computer interaction (HCI)
I’ve started to research into the idea mentioned above. I wanted to include some theories within my Theorectical Framework. I came accross Human Computer Interaction (HCI) which Jack Witherdean has talked about on his blog post.
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is the study of how people design, implement, and use interactive computer systems, and how computers affect individuals, organizations, and society. Source.
One of HCI’s goals is to improve interacitvity between people and computers. This is exactly what im trying to get accross with this idea. I believe that making something thats easily accessible and usable will improve HCI.
Other existing dock’s
In order to design and develop a successful dock I firstly need to look at existing available docks:
Stardock’s objectDock
“ObjectDock is a program that adds a skinnable dock to your Windows desktop. It is one of the most popular desktop enhancement programs available.” Source.
Pros and Cons of Stardock’s ObjectDock:
Pro’s
- Equivalent of OSX dock
- Basic version free
- Magnifications of icons
- SDK for creating ObjectDock docklets
Con’s
- Requires Windows XP/Vista
- Price for full version
ObjectDock is a fantastic recreation of the Mac’s Dock in OSX. It provides Windows users the ability to customize their own personal dock. Either working with or without Windows taskbar. ObjectDock is a good example of the functionality Im going for within my dock.
Mac OSX dock
“The Dock in Mac OS X provides fast, one-click access to frequently used applications, folders, files, and even downloads from the Internet. The Finder makes working with your files and documents as easy as browsing your iTunes library.” Source.
The dock in OSX is an essential part in which users operate within OSX. The dock has been designed to allow users to access files, open applications and search through the hard drive with ease.
Pro’s
- Visually pleasing
- Re-sizable
- Magnifications of icons
- Light’s indicate running applications
Con’s
- Labels only appear when mouse is over
- Applications move place when applications are added and removed, causing confusion
- The size of the dock (normal size) within the OSX UI
What I like about the dock is that is pretty straight forward to use. The icons clearly represent the programs they correspond too. The only problems I have with the dock is that the features are too hidden. For example, to re-size the dock you need to click and drag on the dotted lines. If you didn’t read that in the manual there would be no clear indication of how to do it. Another problem would be the application titles. They only appear when the mouse has rolled over the icons. This could be a problem to someone who may have trouble relating to the images within the icons.
The University of the Third Age
Whilst I was discussing my idea with Giles (one of our course lecturers) he mentioned The University of the Third Age.
“U3A stands for the University of the Third Age, which is a self-help organisation for people no longer in full time employment providing educational, creative and leisure opportunities in a friendly environment. It consists of local U3As all over the UK, which are charities in their own right and are run entirely by volunteers. Local U3As are learning cooperatives which draw upon the knowledge, experience and skills of their own members to organise and provide interest groups in accordance with the wishes of the membership. The teachers learn and the learners teach. Between them U3As offer the chance to study over 300 different subjects in such fields as art, languages, music, history, life sciences, philosophy, computing, crafts, photography and walking. A typical U3A has about 250 members but could be as small as 12 and as large as 2000.
The U3A approach to learning is – learning for pleasure. There is no accreditation or validation and there are no assessments or qualifications to be gained.” Source.
I thought it would be a good idea if I were to contact the U3A and talk about this idea with their IT department. I have sent an email to the U3A about the dock I intend to design and develop.
Ease of access in Windows
Accessibility and easability in Windows:
Windows has many built in features for its users. The main feature for easability is the Ease of Access Center.
Firstly, im going to say its not easy to find. Unless you know how to navigate through the OS. There are a number of ways to access Ease of Access Center. The first is through Start – Search:
The second through Desktop – Personalize:
When you launch the Ease of Access Center you have a variety of options to change:
As you can see from the picture of the window you have numerous options to help improve the easability of the OS for the user. Probably the most used feature within the Ease of Access Center is optimizing the visual display.
I think all of these features are essential to include within an operating system. The only downside to it is finding the feature. It would be a good idea to have a shortcut within my application to launch the Ease of Access Center.
Design and development
The previous Wednesday and Thursday I dicussed my design and idea with Giles and Andrew (two of my course lecturers). Giles and Andrew constructively criticized my design. Andrew talked about making the dock an interactive desktop environment. This was a good concept. But the application would have been full screen and the user wouldn’t be able to select anything on the actual desktop.
Giles mentioned that I should have an orb shaped dock. At first I was unsure of how this would look and feel within the Windows OS. I was keen to see if this would work instead of a rectangular dock that has to many similarities to the Mac’s dock.
I found a design someone came up with on Deviant Art:
The design has a very clean and simplistic aesthetic. The functionality of this design would be very user friendly. It relates to the iPod’s circular navigation, which I’ve mentioned in my Theorectical Framework.
I started to develop this idea further:
When I started to write a class for the navigation items I came across a big problem. Adobe Air doesn’t allow the launch of executable files (.exe) from the application, for security purposes. After reading through the Air documentation I realized that you can access the user’s directory, but you can’t open a new window through Windows Explorer. This would leave limited functionality to my dock. The only part that the user could interact with would be the items that load up a web page.
My other alternative is to make a flash projector (.exe) which has fscommands. Fscommands has the ability to launch folders and programs. The downside to this alternative is the Flash Player Chrome that it runs with. For example, the picture above is a transparent window, with the default Windows, window theme removed.
Tags: accessibility, adobe air, interaction, interactivity, new media, osx dock, U3A
